WBS Penguins open playoffs against Binghamton

The way center Trevor Smith sees it, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins shouldn't have spent Sunday afternoon worrying about who they would play in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs.

The other teams in the Eastern Conference should have been worried that they'd get paired up with the Penguins.

"I don't think teams want to play us," Smith said. "We're a tough, hard-nosed team and they know they're going to get a hard-fought battle. I think we're one of those teams in the playoffs where teams look at the standings and they see us and they don't want to match up with us."

As it turns out, the team that will be matching up with the fifth-seeded Penguins is fourth-seeded Binghamton.

The best-of-5 series opens Saturday in Binghamton. The Penguins will return home May 2 to host Game 3.

The Portland Pirates had a chance to knock the Penguins out of the fifth seed, but they lost, 4-1, to Bridgeport in their regular-season finale Sunday. As a result, the Pirates are seeded sixth and will face third-seeded Syracuse.

Binghamton finished eight points ahead of the Penguins in the standings and won six of the 10 head-to-head meetings between the teams this season. The B-Sens won five of six meetings before the NHL lockout ended, and the Penguins won three of four meetings afterwards.

The teams have met in the playoffs once before. In the first round in 2005, the Penguins lost the first two games, won Game 3 on a Colby Armstrong goal in triple overtime and went on to win the series in six games.

n In other news Sunday, Penguins goalies Jeff Zatkoff and Brad Thiessen were announced as winners of the AHL's Harry "Hap" Holmes Award for having the lowest team goals-against average. The Penguins gave up a league-best 178 goals.

The Penguins also won in the award in 2010-11 (Thiessen and John Curry) and 2005-06 (Dany Sabourin).

Contact the writer: sports@timesshamrock.com

SCHEDULE

Saturday at Binghamton, 7:05 p.m.

Sunday at Binghamton, 5:05 p.m.

May 2 at Penguins, 7:05 p.m.

x-May 4 at Penguins, 7:05 p.m.

May 6 at Binghamton, 7:05 p.m.

x-if necessary

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